The present invention relates generally to medical equipment maintenance and, more particularly, to a technique for automatically scheduling maintenance sessions based upon usage data, and modifying set schedules based upon changing usage data.
In the field of medical equipment, particularly diagnostic equipment such as imaging systems, regular maintenance is important to provide a continuing high degree of reliability and operability. Imaging equipment, for example, may require periodic servicing of components that may wear, be consumed, or become uncalibrated. It is common in the field of medical equipment servicing to provide for both “as needed” servicing (i.e. in response to service requests), and for regular servicing to ensure optimum performance and efficiency of equipment throughout medical institutions.
Current approaches to servicing medical equipment include regularly timed service calls, typically based upon contractual arrangements between service providers and medical institutions. The providers commonly schedule either on-site service visits or remote servicing, or both, on a regular timed basis. The intervals between such visits are generally determined in rather empirical fashions, however, and may vary widely between service providers, institutions, contracts, regions, and so forth, even for similar types of equipment.
There is a need in the field of medical equipment servicing for an improved technique for scheduling service to specific equipment components and types of equipment that would be more closely coupled to the actual need for servicing. There is a particular need for a technique that would permit automatic scheduling based upon some criteria or criterion other than simple time intervals, or that would allow for selection between such interval-based servicing and the need-based approach.